When the holidays roll around in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, the Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, and Russia you will be sure to find bakers busy turning out the traditional dessert roll delicacy called Kolachi, also called Kolachki, Kolacky, Kolachy, Kolace, Kolache, or Kolachke.These are dessert rolls made with sweet rising dough and filled with a variety of fillings. Some fillings consist of ground walnuts to which some bakers add ground coconut and others add honey.
Another popular filling is made with ground poppy seed to which some traditional bakers add raisins, either red or white.
For ordinary occasions or simply as a roll with your morning coffee many eastern Europeans enjoy kolachi stuffed with lekvar, which is a prune filling.
When I was as boy, my mom rolled out the lekvar kolachi throughout the year for morning coffee or an after school snack. For Christmas and Easter, however, she would ask me to assemble the old grinder that was practically an antique, attach the small grinding wheel and churn out bowlfuls of fine walnut powder, adding a little coconut as I went along.She would take this walnut/coconut concoction and blend it into a semi-liquid paste, the consistency of soft butter, and slather it thickly on the rolled out dough. Carefully rolling each slab of dough the size of a large pizza, she would create kolachi rolls in the unbaked state. After they had been allowed to rise to their maximum plumpness, they would be put into the oven to bake, giving off a delicious aroma that presaged many enjoyable snacks during the holidays.
The poppy seed grinding process was a bit more difficult since dry poppy seeds tended to slip through the grinding wheel without being crushed. To prevent this, I was advised to add a few raisins to the mix as I started grinding the poppy seeds and intermittently thereafter. The raisins moistened the grinding wheel and assured that the seeds would be ground properly.
Mom would process the ground poppy seed in much the same way that she had the walnut mixture. Sometimes she would sprinkle a few raisinns over the rolled out dough covered with the poppy seed mixture to add a sweet taste to the kolachi.
When all the hustle and bustle in the kitchen was brought to completion, my mother would have baked enough kolachi to last throughout the Christmas or Easter holidays --- that would be the equivalent of a huge canning kettle filled with upwards of 25 rolls. The hardest part of this enterprise was waiting for the holidays when, and only when, the first kolachi would be sliced and served.
If you don't bake them yourself, it is difficult to find authentic Eastern European kolachi in your local bakery. Fortunately, I have discovered a great source for kolachi just like your mother and grandmother used to bake.Bubba's Home Baked kolachi are everything they claim them to be. This past Christmas I ordered some for my eldest sibling who is a religious sister. She attessts that she and the other Slovak nuns enjoyed them immensely, all agreeing that they were just like the ones their mothers and grandmothers made. For a moment they were giving me credit for baking them as if I could!
You can't go wrong with Bubbas's kolachi. They are still following the recipes of their grandmother whom they affectionately called 'Bubba' since they were children. Just click on the link below and see what they have to offer. You won't go wrong with either the nut, poppy seed, lekvar or other rolls. Take special notice of their discounted combination packages.
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